There are many situations where a person or group of people would like to sit down and rest where seating is not readily available. It is often convenient to have portable seating that a person can take with them to outdoor events, such as sporting events, concerts, camping, etc. A person can then take their own seat with them and place it where they want. Once they are done with the area, they can simply take the seat with them.
There are numerous prior art collapsible seats that are fairly portable, ranging from the well known aluminum fold up lawn chairs to the more recent collapsible camp chairs. Double chairs provide a pair of seats, convenient for a couple, and can further provide a table between the seats. Examples of such prior art double chairs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,951,103 to Barnill and 5,529,375 to English. The chair apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,928 to Staunton et al. states that it can provide up to four or six chairs side by side, separated by arm rests, connected in a single unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,119 to Zheng discloses a popular chair construction where the chair frame comprises a plurality of tubes pivotally and slidably attached to each other such that in an expanded seating mode, the tubes are crossed and spread out forward and rearward and laterally at angles to each other to support a fabric cover attached to the frame, and in a collapsed mode the tubes are all substantially aligned to form a compact bundle for transport.
Also, it is often desirable for the portable seat to provide some protection from the elements, such as the sun, wind, or rain. The Barnhill double chair provides a canopy over each chair, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,928 to Wildt also includes a canopy over a single chair. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,096,257 to Clark and 5,080,432 to Connell disclose canopy attachments for folding chairs.